Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sorry about the late post folks, you've got to understand that this was an extremely tough decision. I was so impressed with all of the entries I received. You all did wonderfully and it's taken me the better part of this entire day just to pick two winners. And just because the tension isn't enough for you all, we've forgotten ask for authorization to post winning entries. So in the most lackluster display ever, (until we're given clearance to post the entries, oof legalese) the winners are announced... as such:

1. A currently anonymous entrant who crafted an inspiring (and hopefully soon to be posted) paragraph on "our favorite propmaster, Millie Strathorn."

My deepest apologies for this rather blase announcement. But worry not, once they winners have replied, you'll be feasting your eyes on some wonderful writing. Some times these legal things really take the wind out of my sails... sheesh...

I'll also be contacting a few other people, as some of the runners-up did an incredible job, and I'd love to post their entries as well. So congrats to the winners (you know who you are) and my sincerest respect for those of you who entered. It was a joy to read all of your submissions. Till tomorrow! (I owe you guys big for your patience :P)

Hey Nancy Drew fans!Well summer time has come again which means that the marketing team summer internship position has been filled…by me: Summer_Sleuth! As a new addition to the Her Interactive team, my jobs around the office vary from stuffing envelopes, to researching the Hardy Boys, to testing games, to basically doing whatever’s asked of me.From time to time I’ll be posting on the blog to give you an idea of what life as a HI intern is really like and hopefully get a lot of you interested in pursuing opportunities like this during your summer vacations!

I’ve been playing and testing the Nancy Drew games since they first came out and always look forward to when I can play the next one and now I get to be part of the team that creates them! So much work is put into every release and I’m so excited to watch and help out with the whole process.

I look forward to blogging and keeping all of you updated on Intern happenings!

And check back later today for a post announcing the winners of the character cameo contest!

Monday, June 29, 2009

So with the myriad of perplexity that I posted last week, I think I'm going to have to spend a large amount of space today handing off all the various methods used in solving each of the puzzles. I hope everyone's been having fun with them!

Let's start with Puzzle 16 -

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Puzzle 16 was written in code, that code was [ Braille ] When written out, it appears as numbers which signify [ the positions of the dots. ] So, let's look at the puzzle:

[{3} (1,234) (1) (2,345) (2,345) (13,456)]

[(12,346)]

[{3} (1,235) (24) (14) (13) (136) (234)]

We know that all of the operators were there to separate the information, so that tells us that: 3, 1234, 1, 2345, 2345, 13456 spells out one word. There were two tricky parts, one is the {3} that appears before two of the words. Placing a "3" before any word means [ that the first letter is capitalized, telling us that these are a proper names ] The second part is the middle word. While it appears like only one letter, the code actually has a few words that can be created with the use of one character. In this case 12346 = [ and ]. And that's all there is to it. So once you've gotten the letters, there was no unscrambling, making the answer:

[ Patty and Rickus ]

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This one is a bit more direct, but utilizes fantastic wordplay. Getting to the end result is great deal of fun. Here's how it is done: [ To solve it, each line has a clue that tells you which letter in the noun in that line is part of the answer. ]

Nancy Drew Riddle - By NancyDrewGal111

Is always in the lead when it comes to notetaking[ Line 1. lead - notetaking = N]

Always eager to start an adventure[ Line 2. start - adventure = A ]Comes out the end of every creepy mansion[ Line 3. end - mansion = N]The one who starts finding clues almost immediately[ Line 4. starts - clues = C ]Who solves every mystery all the way to the end![ Line 5. end - mystery = Y ]

Put the whole thing together and you get [ Nancy ] This was a wonderfully well-thought puzzle and we applaud NancyDrewGal111 for her entry.

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And up next is another grand entry. This one had many of our staff stumped for quite some time, but once you see how its done, I'm sure you'll be as amazed as we were.

Who Am I? - By GirlDetective

Each of the below questions is solved by information from various games we've released.

The smallest word that Nancy saw on the lodgers' temporary door signs at Icicle Creek. (....)[ do ]

Richard Topham is proud of this measurement of aptitude. (|..)[ test ]

The first of four words in a favorite quote of Joanna's, minus the first, fifth, and sixth letters. (|...)[ emp ]

Red was proficient at imitating this creature that startled Nancy. (...)[ owl ]

Professor Hotchkiss longs to have this on her next visit to Wisconsin. (|)[ cheese ]

Breland is an important ingredient for Nancy to use in making this. (.)[ tea ]

Nancy's father does this for a living. (|....)[ lawyer ]

Millie had no idea that Nancy used this. (..)[ knob ]

The chickens at Shadow Ranch do this each day. (|.)[ lay ]

For the position of words, use the first name and the last initial of the missing reporter Nancy was trying to find. [ Maya N. = Mayan (numerals) ]

So given that, the symbols in parenthesis allows us to order the words as such:[ tea knob owl do cheese lay test emp lawyer ]

After you've placed the words, you need to be like Samantha to discover the answer.This reference is to another character, [ Samantha Quick ]

To solve the puzzle you then have to [ say the words "quick"- ly ]Once you've done this, you get [ Tino Balducci's latest employer ] which at the time of the riddle was [ Chantal Moique ]. And that's the answer to "Who Am I."

Simply amazing. That's a stand-out riddle if I've ever seen one. Special chops to you GirlD, we loved it.

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And last but certainly not least, we have the puzzle from this weekend. The puzzle was solved very quickly, but it was a nice quick addition from Mari. To solve it you just had to follow a specific path. Those of you that did discovered [ Port Out, Starboard Home ] Oh dear more clues...

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Well that's all today, given our multitude of reveals. Tune in tomorrow for some extra special activities. Sayonara!

Friday, June 26, 2009

I have to congratulate you all on solving the puzzle! I dig the determination you all showed, big kudos to everyone! I'll post the key on Monday. But now that you've finished it, Master Puzzler Mari has returned with another great one. Still, who says you can have too many puzzles? ~.<

For those of you who are truly brave, you've been seeking answers on the riddles by our contest winners. I'm going to hold off for a day or two on our riddle answers, just because we've got quite a bit happening and I don't want to bombard you all with a gazillion items. So without further ado, here's some weekend fun:

-- You can move in any direction, but you can only use each letter once. Upon completion you'll spell a short phrase!

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Awesome! Good luck everyone. Also I think the newsletter should be popping up in your inboxes rather soon, so keep an eye out, there is some important info in there. Happy summer!

Things can get pretty busy here at Her Interactive which is why it’s important for us to always find the time to enjoy the finer points in life: like National Chocolate Pudding Day! I personally am always looking for a good reason to scarf down some chocolate pudding so be sure to celebrate by enjoying at least one cup full of the delicious treat, try making your own, or if you really want to go all out here’s some of my favorite recipes incorporating the chocolaty snack:

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I've been promising it, so I've scoured through our archives and managed to come up with the winning entries for the Riddle contest (as well as a few others we very much enjoyed.) I'm going to post them below for everyone to check out. I'll post up the answers sometime tomorrow in spoiler text. I very much appreciate the two fans who have been patient with us in this regard.

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Who Am I? - By GirlDetectiveThe smallest word that Nancy saw on the lodgers' temporary door signs at Icicle Creek. (....)Richard Topham is proud of this measurement of aptitude. (|..)The first of four words in a favorite quote of Joanna's, minus the first, fifth, and sixth letters. (|...)Red was proficient at imitating this creature that startled Nancy. (...)Professor Hotchkiss longs to have this on her next visit to Wisconsin. (|)Breland is an important ingredient for Nancy to use in making this. (.)Nancy's father does this for a living. (|....)Millie had no idea that Nancy used this. (..)The chickens at Shadow Ranch do this each day. (|.)

For the position of words, use the first name and the last initial of the missing reporter Nancy was trying to find.After you've placed the words, you need to be like Samantha to discover the answer.

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Nancy Drew Riddle - By NancyDrewGal111

Is always in the lead when it comes to note taking

Always eager to start an adventure

Comes out the end of every creepy mansion

The one who starts finding clues almost immediately

Who solves every mystery all the way to the end!

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These riddles were just so beautifully crafted and very satisfying to solve. We had a great time with many of the riddles. Thanks to everyone who participated in that contest oh so long ago. ^^

Which leads me to today's puzzle hint. Maybe yesterday's wasn't as helpful as I was hoping, so today we'll go with this:

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mid-week is always an interesting time because it allows for a great view of the office "busy" state. Mondays tend to drag and Tuesdays are warm-ups, so by Wednesday we're actually in full production. It totally sets the mean for the week. If your Wednesday is swamped, there's a good chance your whole week was, and is going to be, the same.

Certainly we've been buried with work for quite a bit now, so in honor I thought I'd post a nice picture of an unfortunate workstation that has barely enough room to think...

Scary... although they do have a nice whiteboard... anywho...

After reading up on some of the various strategies everyone has been using to try and solve the puzzle, I thought I would post a very direct sort of hint. So here goes:

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You do not need to utilize any math in order to solve this puzzle, it uses a particular system. In addition, once the numbers have been solved, it will not be necessary to unscramble their solutions.Good luck!

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Excellent. We're steadily approaching the end of the month, which means to keep your eyes peeled for a new newsletter. I hear we've got a pretty good for this month. I can't wait! Catch ya on the flip-side!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hi-o!Sorry about my absence yesterday, I'm sure that many of you are quite anxious to get a little hint from me. This puzzle is certainly a challenge, so let me see what I can give you to help out.

--Everyone is doing fantastic, keep up the hard work.

One thing that might help though is to know that all of the {}'s and ()'s are just a way of separating the numbers, you don't actually need any math. We just needed a method of visually defining the space/relationship between the numbers and what they mean.

Also, (same) might be a bit abstract, so assume that in place of (same) is (2,345). This however does not mean that 2,345 = same [as a key].

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Alright, let's see if that gives you just the right thought. I'll catch up with ya's later!

So I don't know how much I might have mentioned this or not, but we've been unbelievably swamped here at the office. We've got so many awesome things coming out this year. It's pretty exciting right now what with the near future release of Ransom of the Seven Ships and RED coming out a bit later. We're totally stoked.

But enough about me, hows about you all! I've got to say you all deserve a lot of praise for doing a great job with the puzzle. And all the contest entries, (I know I gushed before ^.^) but simply grand! Keep 'em coming!

Oh, for those of you who don't know, I'll post the puzzle answer below. We had some really dedicated people finally crack this one. You guys are fantastic!

[ France ]

So what does this famous place have to do with Nancy Drew? Well... it's... (nope, can't spoil it) >.< Soon though, soon.

Anywho, I've got a new puzzle for you all as well. It's a special one too, I'll be posting it in a few.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Hmmm.... I've read quite a bit on how people are working on solving the puzzle, and I'm absolutely in love with all of your answers! But I suppose I should work on trying to help you all reach that final end. So with that in mind, I'm going to break down the puzzle into a few pieces to help you step through it.

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Step one: The dominoes and how they fall -Your given two possible types which I'll describe as horizontal {x|y} and vertical {x\y} (please note that I've just assigned arbitrary symbols to them for description purposes, and do not intend for the normal mathematical operations to apply) The way you solve it is; [ when you have a domino that is horizontal, you add the two numbers together: so 2|4 = 2+4 = 6. With a vertical domino, you treat it as a fraction: so 2\3 remains two-thirds. ]

Okay so I'm going to give you a partial solution by using the first two as an example: { 2|4 over 0|6 } = [ 2|4 is horizontal, so it is 2 + 4, which = 6; 0|6 is horizontal so it is 0 + 6, which = 6; this means that you end up with 6 over 6 or 6/6, which = 1 ]

Always remember to reduce fractions down. ^.~

Step Two: Solving numbers to letters -So let's say you've got all the numbers from the dominoes solved. Now what? Well I gave you a cipher yesterday that helped to clue you in on what each number means, but I'm going to take it a bit further today. This is one sneaky trick that Mari pulled. ^^

Let's say you've solved the dominoes as thus: (and let's be clear, I'm just making these numbers up) 3, 1/5, 2, 6/23, and 8. Well you've got some options on how to distribute those numbers to letters. First I want you to consider that none of the numbers are inherently connected, by which I mean if you take 1/5, the 1 and the 5 don't necessarily have to relate in any way to each other, even though they previously formed a fraction. So let's take those same numbers and distribute them differently: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 23.

Okay! But now we only have 6 blanks (for letters) but 7 numbers. Well given that, assume you'll need to combine two numbers to make one letter, in this case there are only a few possible choices, but for example here's how it would be done: [ 1 and 2 combine to make 12 which would equal "L.' But this also means that you can't combine 2 and 8 to make 28 for "B," your limit is 26. Just keep in mind that the numbers don't add, they combine; 3 and 4 is 34, not 7 ]

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Ahhhhhh much better. I've got complete confidence that you'll be solving this one now. It sure was a tough one. Good job sticking with it! I'll catch ya on the flip-side!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

So one, quite talented member, of our staff managed to take a few pictures just outside the office building. I think they're really awesome and help to show you all the inspiring beauty that we're fortunate enough to inhabit.

Kinda makes me wish I had an office with a view. :P Anywho I just thought these were too awesome to not share. A big thanks to Scripter James for providing me with the photos.

As a little aside, I've been steadily following the success and hardships you all have been facing with the weekend puzzle. This puzzle was provided by our ever-talented Mari. But she has taken a slight vacation and left me to delegate the obscure science of "puzzle support." In this regard, I am therefore providing you with a probably more substantial hint than necessary and as such will be placing it in spoilers.

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Since you know you've at least seen the correct numbers, I thought I'd help you by providing assistance in deciphering the letter code. So here goes: within the brackets is a partial key [ 1 = A and 15 = O ]

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

It's awesome that you all are dedicated to this pursuit! You've gotten soooo close to the answer, so I'm going to give you just one more hint. Here goes.

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I've seen some of you with the right numbers, which is fantastic. And as much as I'd like to give you the answer, I'll I can say is you're looking for a particular place, one that we may have visited before...

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Keep at it, you're almost there!

Just for a head's up, we might be featuring a wonderfully excellent guest writer soon! We've had a recent addition to our staff, and she might be taking over the reins of the AS blog for a little bit. I'm sure she'll have some exciting new content to share with us. I'm not going to completely spoil the surprise though. I'll have to let her do the introductions. As to when... well, it may be sooner than you think!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

A few years ago, we started working on the Nancy Drew Dossier series and it was very different from the Lights, Camera, Curses game that was actually created. Back then, we just referred to to the Dossier series as 'casual' - meaning that it was going to be differnt from our Adventure series games, but we didn't really know how.

Our first iterration of the game had a few arcade mini-games tied together with a story and a method of putting all the clues you collected from the mini-game together. Below is the art from our very first Dossier series prototype. You'll never see this art anywhere else since the first prototype failed and the art was lost with it. It's very detailed and feels a lot like the Adventure series - too much almost.

While we wanted something that was as high quality as our current games, but this was too similar. Can you think of other places in the Nancy Drew Adventures series games that look like this paining? For bonus points, guess the artist! :)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I don't have much lined up for you today, but we've been busily working to wrap up all the craziness with Ransom of the Seven Ships. The release is quickly approaching and we are all excited! I don't think we've ever been quite this busy. We've got RED releasing later this year as well, and boy does the extra work start to stack up.

I've added this image from the HI library cause, well, I was in there for a good amount of time this week. But also because one of the most prominent books on the shelf was titled, "The Eleventh Hour." I felt that this was a rather silly coincidence. Not only is it a great book, filled with beautiful art and a splendid mystery, but it also alludes to the well-known idiom. Glorious, I'd say. Ah well, it looks to be a bountiful summer for all the Nancy Drew lovers!

Monday, June 8, 2009

If you had to choose a character from a Nancy Drew game who is similar to you, who would it be? and why?

Answer these questions in a short paragraph and you could get your picture in Nancy Drew 21! Just email your response to webmaster@herinteractive.com by June 26th with the subject “Character.” We’ll pick two winners and announce them on June 30th. The winners will get their pictures placed in Nancy Drew #21! The rules are listed below:

• You may only submit one entry.

• The minimum length is approximately one paragraph (100 words), there is no maximum length.

• You may only choose animated characters from the game. This means you must have seen them and talked to them in the game. Note: This does not include phone characters or characters that were only referenced for historical elements.

I managed to get a quick comment from our resident "video editor" about this particular release.

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Well, I wanted to do something a little different with this one. Normally we focus on the mystery and terror with our trailers, but I felt that RAN should be directed more towards its themes. The game itself is much more adventurous than spooky in its presentation and the trailer was tailored to reflect that. We're given a tale of danger and desperation with thrills and twists at every turn. So I attempted to highlight the action and excitement that a person would experience while playing. I really hope you enjoy this vignette.

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Awesome, thanks a bunch for the insight. Alright folks, check out the vid, and I'll catch ya on the 'morrow!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

I'm not certain if any of you have been keeping up with the news lately, but we came across an interesting article in the N.Y. Times yesterday. If you've ever wondered about the correlation between Nancy Drew Fans and the U.S. Supreme Court, here's your answer! The article speaks about the influence and fascination that various Supreme Court judges had with Nancy Drew. Check it out if you've got the time, I've posted the link below.